Smiles, Science, and School: January
Hey!
The best date to propose is at 11:59 PM on New Year’s Eve… because you can ring in the New Year.
Welcome back to my newsletter. Hope you had a great January.
For those who don't know, I'm Nina Khera. You may have met me during a meeting, or at the latest networking event in Boston. I'm a 16-year-old human longevity researcher who's working on projects from topics spanning cellular senescence (zombie cells) to epidermolysis bullosa (skin disease)!
This month I’ve worked a bunch on Biotein, worked on Youth STEM Matters, done schoolwork, and worked on a secret collaboration paper with a few others!
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Biotein
This month, we were actually able to get some results from our experiments and send in our samples to get a final set of results from our initial experiments! We’ve also been running market research interviews and have got to around 50 interviews, which is awesome!
Next month, we’re planning to finish those experiments, begin development of our test, and write customer profiles of what traits an ideal customer will have based on our interviews.
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Mindsets and Philosophy
Here are some thoughts I’ve been having!
I feel like it’s easy to say that you’re introverted and are fine alone for a lot of your life until you actually get to a situation where you need to be alone. I had to do that this month. I’ve realized that being alone for a long period of time (a few days) does a lot of things, but mainly: it exposes a lot of insecurities and issues that you have and it helps you see who’s really needed in your life (by showing you through your feelings about who you’re missing). I think that’s an experience people should do every so often to keep themselves in check relationship and issues-wise.
There is a difference between person and persona. The persona that others see of you can be very different than who you actually are. After getting to know you better, the persona people see of you gets closer and closer to who you are - but it’s impossible to completely pin down a person. My family’s known me for 16 years and still can’t fully pin me down (same for me about them!). Perhaps that’s one of the great things about people - they never truly get predictable, as it’s super hard to flatten someone into a 2D representation of who they actually are. People are fluid and 3D beings.
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Knowledge Bytes
Here are some recommendations from the month!
- Underrated email hack: When a group is spamming you, make an email filter to automatically have their emails (from that email address) skip the inbox and go to a folder!
- Sentimental gift: I think lockets/any necklace or jewelry piece of some sort with a picture is so kind and also pretty!
- Best fruit: Pomegranates. They’re delicious while simultaneously having a great nutritional profile! Don’t just get the juice though - you’d be missing out on a ton.
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Shoutouts
Here are some fun shoutouts:
1517 Fund for giving us so much help with market research reachout strategies and locations!
Ben Nashman for all your market research and product advice! It’s been so helpful.
Junaid for making that whole Whatsapp community and the awesome calls!
Dr. Cerf for all your thoughts on college and futures + cool discussion of current tech!
Thank you to everyone reading this. Even if I didn't mention you this month. you probably helped me a lot. Thank you!
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Next Month
In February, I’ll be continuing with Biotein, Youth STEM Matters, and my secret paper project!
Reach out to me if you want to talk about human longevity (or just life sciences in general) or anything else honestly!
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-khera-115b5a175/
Personal Website: https://ninakhera.com/
Email: kheranina@gmail.com (or just reply to this email)